Transformers: Spark
by LegoShokwave123
Summary: A young Autobot recruit joins Optimus Prime's team on a small backwater organic planet, but soon discovers that their eternal foes, the Decepticons, are bent on reviving his oldest enemy: Shockwave.
1. Chapter 1

The warrior crouched in the shadows of the second story of Iacon's Great Library. He looked directly forward, never diverting his gaze to glance at the huge shelves full of the glittering gold and silver of the knowledge they held for even a moment. His target was ahead, and ahead he would go.

He crept to the edge of the massive hole that allowed those in the second story to look down into the lower floor and carefully peeked over, as not to be seen and studied what was below. Shelves lined with data pads and V-Sigma Canisters filled most of the room, the center had a large lighting well with a holographic fire projected inside it. Around the light, Seven rounded desks were positioned and around those thirteen chairs, two to each desk except one. The largest desk had a single chair that had its back to the warrior. In the chair, a large Red and Purple cybertronian sat with a rather fancy quill pen in hand and writing in a large book.

He scanned the old bot to be sure that it was his target. Upon verifying that it was indeed who it seemed to be, the warrior reached onto his back and grabbed a stick like device, which upon being sent a mental signal, silently extended into a bo-staff. He stood to his full height, backed away from the edge a little and took a running leap. He held his bo-staff in front of him so it would make contact with his targets skullplate before he himself did.

But moments before he succeeded in taking down the Elder, everything went horribly wrong. The chair turned around, and the seemingly old and frail bot held up the book it had been writing in, which nearly immediately projected a hard light shield from under its cover. The bo-staff bounced off of the strange armor and the warrior only barely landed on its feet behind the Elder. The older bot whipped around, holding the quill pen in its right servo. The pen's "feather" projected a hard light blade and the warrior gasped in horror as his intended victim drove the glowing blue blade through his back plating and into his spark. The old bot deactivated his blade, and the warrior fell to his hands and knees.

"Well done Smokescreen," the older bot told the warrior, offering him a servo to help him up. Smokescreen rolled onto his back and grabbed his teacher's servo.

"I lost," he stated bluntly as the Elder helped him to his feet.  
"Yes, but you came closer to succeeding than you ever have before."

"I shall never be as great a warrior as you Alpha Trion," Smokescreen stated with obvious disappointment in his voice.

"On the contrary, in time you will be able to fight against more powerful bots than I, and stand victorious. Do not despair, you will prove yourself when you are ready."

"Well he better be ready quick. The Forged are knockin' at the Decagon's main gate, it won't be long until they find their way here," a gruff, southern sounding voice responded.

Alpha Trion and Smokscreen turned to the entryway of the library, where a heavily armored mech stood with arms crossed, staring at them. His red paint was covered in dings and scratches beyond count, and one optic was dimmer than the other. Each arm had a large cannon affixed to it, and a scatter blaster was slung across his back. His name was Ironhide, first lieutenant of the Wreckers.

"They're packin' Furmanite 'nades too. And on the way here I found a Autotrooper, half eaten. That can only mean one thing"

"Insecticons," Smokscreen growled.

"Exactly," Ironhide turned to Trion, "Sir, I heavily suggest that we get the Pit outta here, follow me"  
The three of them rushed out of the library into the large main hall of the Iacon Arts and Science building, which housed both the Library and the Decagon. They ran down the hall until the reached the first intersection of the main hall and a secondary hall. There, five Autotroopers joined them, armed with the Anti-organic weaponry that had proven so effective against Insecticons in the past.

"You two," Ironhide pointed at two Troopers, "scout ahead, and radio me if you encounter any Forged or Insecticons"

"Yes sir," the troopers said in unison before dashing down the hall to the next intersection.  
One trooper radioed all clear, and the rest of the party moved to his position. The other continued on to the next intersection, checking for enemies.

"Clear...Clear...Clear...Cleeeaaaaahhhh!" the trooper screamed as a powerful Furmanite blast explosively neutralized all the Energon in his frame.

"Ah frag!" Ironhide shouted, raising his cannons to aim at the supports of the last intersection the trooper had checked before his demise. The five remaining Troopers did the same,"Fire!"  
The Troopers and Ironhide all fired, the lasers and missiles streaking towards the supports. An Insecticon and two Forged turned the corner and took aim at the Autobots. Ironhide's Missiles made contact, and the supports cracked and a large section of the roof fell into the hall, smashing the Decepticon's into scrap.

"That will hold their comrades off for a few minutes, hopefully long enough for the two of ya to escape. Go down this side hallway to the right. It leads to the main hangar. In the hanger you will find a Wrecker dropship, take it and get the scrap away from here. Iacon is under attack, so don't even think about landin' 'til ya get to someplace that ain't under Con control."  
Alpha Trion stroked his beard for a moment and then asked, "What about you commander?"

"Me and the boys are gonna hold the Pit spawned bugs off long enough for ya to escape," Ironhide saluted, "Its been nice servin' with ya Sir. Now go!"


	2. Chapter 2

Ironhide watched Alpha Trion and Smokecreen run down the hallway, hopefully to safety.

"May Primus be with you," Ironhide muttered, "May Primus be with us all."

He turned to the five Troopers and pointed at the rubble pile keeping the Cons at bay, "As soon as those aft-hats come through there, we'll be in the fight of our lives. So look lively, prep your guns, get your 'nades, and kiss your aft goodbye."

Ironhide turned and aimed both of his arm mounted cannons at the barricade of metal and stone, the Troopers did the same. They stood there, listening intently to the sounds of the Insecticons digging on the other side. Finally, after a tense few minutes of waiting, the first Insecticon broke through. All five Autotroopers fired, but their shots did little to harm the beasts. Ironhide fired his missiles and they blasted the first Insecticon to oblivion.

Soon two more broke through, along with a third arriving from the first one's hole. Ironhide was able to take out one, but one of the other two transformed into robot mode and grabbed an Autotrooper in each hand. The other three Troopers fired on it, to no avail, and it bit the head off of one of its unfortunate captives, and ripped the other in two. While they had been attacking that one, the third crept around to behind Ironhide. Ironhide had actually been following its every move, and when it charged him he dodged it easily. It barreled along, taking out a single Autotrooper, before burying its beetle mode horn in the spark of the other Insecticon. Ironhide sneered and let loose a volley of missiles that obliterated both cons entirely.

Ironhide's cannons, both out of ammo, retracted into his forearms and he pulled his scatter blaster from its back-mounted holster. He and the two remaining Troopers pointed their weapons at the holes in the rubble, waiting for what would come next. A pair of blaster bolts flew from hole and struck the Troopers in their heads. Three Forged marched into the room and were greeted by a blast from Ironhide's blaster. Two fell dead, and the third's crimson visor went blank.

"Reforged," it moaned in it's mechanical tone. It's visor reignited electric blue, the exact same shade as Ironhide's scatter blaster fire. Ironhide shot twice more, but the lasers did nothing. Ironhide growled and threw the gun to the ground.

"Huh, I suppose we'll have ta do this the old fashioned way then," He rushed the drone, pulling a mechanium combat knife from its sheath on his hip as he did so. The Forged drone fired, but its laser rifle lacked the punch to pierce Ironhide's armor, and the Autobot reached it none the worse for ware. The drone rose its arms to shield itself and Ironhide batted away the offending appendages before plunging the jagged, rusty blade into its spark.

The next trio came in, and their visors were already blue. They unloaded towards Ironhide who dodged or took their shots with little detriment to himself. Then one got a lucky shot to Ironhide's face, the Bot fell to one knee clutching his face and the Forged surrounded him.

He looked up, "Fell for it!" He rapidly stood and sliced the throat of one drone, swiveled around and tossed the blade into the neck of another. The third attempted to restrain him, but Ironhide broke free of his grip, whipped around, grabbing the drone's face and crushing it into a ball of scrap metal as he did so.

"Aw, they're all gone. And just when I was startin' ta have fun," Ironhide stated with mock disappointment. Ironhide turned towards where the barricade was as a massive explosion sounded from that direction. The rubble was scattered throughout the intersection and a large, purple bot with a massive cannon for his left arm, and a single sulfur yellow optic stood in the place where the barricade had been moments before.

"Calling a battle for your life 'fun' is not what I would call logical," The large bot stated in a deep, emotionless voice, "but if fighting for your very spark entertains you," The freak rose his cannon to aim at Ironhide, "Allow me to heighten your enjoyment."


	3. Chapter 3

**Thanks for the positive reviews everyone. :D**

* * *

The Decepticon fired and Ironhide dodged its shot, but only barely. The Autobot noticed the rifle of one of the Forged troopers lying behind his attacker. He rolled behind the corpse of an Insecticon, wrenched the armored shell off of the lifeless body to use as a shield, and marched towards his foe. The repeated fire from the Decepticon weakened the shell, and it soon shattered.

That was when Ironhide made his move, running towards the enemy, jumping over him and landing on the other side. He retrieved the rifle and shot the Decepticon in the back of the head. The shot did nothing, and the Decepticon turned to face him.

"Hypothesis, your own weapons are out of ammo and you are forced to use the weapons you scavenge from others," the Decepticon mused. The Decepticon sounded oddly amused for an emotionless scientist, "Pathetic."

Ironhide grimaced, "Even if your right about me havin' ta scavenge for weapons, it don't mean nothin'. It isn't the weapon that wins the war, it's the bot that's carryin' it. You Cons have proven that more than enough times, Shockwave."

Ironhide dashed to the body of the Forged that he had killed with his thrown knife. He found the knife on the floor nearby, picked it up and fired a rifle shot at Shockwave's singular optic, his only weak spot, and Shockwave covered his face to prevent it from being damaged. Ironhide rushed Shockwave, holding his knife like a miniature sword. Shockwave lowered his hands from his face and extended his cruel, jagged sword blade from his right forearm. Ironhide swung his knife at Shockwave, who parried and kicked Ironhide away.

Ironhide rushed back to Shockwave and jabbed at him. Shockwave knocked his blow to the side with his sword, and pointed his cannon at the Autobot's face. Ironhide batted it away, and the shot collided harmlessly with the wall. All the same, he noted with worry that every second, Shockwave's body glowed brighter with energy. He would have to finish the Con quickly. Ironhide stepped back from his foe and gathered all his energy for one last attack, but alas, it was in vain.

The very second he bolted towards Shockwave, intent on delivering the finishing blow, the Decepticon rose his foot and stomped once forcibly on the ground. Instantly, all the energy he had built up during the fight was unleashed. The power exploded in a rapidly expanding sphere of energy that pushed Ironhide and everything else away from him. Ironhide slumped on the wall that the blast threw him against, barely able to move. Shockwave strutted up to his victim and lifted his sword arm in the air.

"Any last words, Autobot?"

Ironhide opened his mouth, spat out the energon that had filled it, and groaned, "Yeah. Get slagged ya motherboard fraggin' piece a' filth."

Shockwave brought his blade down to snuff Ironhide's spark. The Autobot unexpectedly leaned to one side , dodging the blow, and swung his knife upwards, landing a solid blow to Shockwave's underarm. He struggled but managed to stand up, lifted the much larger Decepticon, and threw him into the entrance of a side hallway. Shockwave leaned on his right arm and rose his arm cannon. Ironhide shot Shockwave's cannon just before he fired and Shockwaves blast destroyed the support for the side hall in which he lay. The ceiling collapsed upon Shockwave, and Ironhide limped over to the newly formed rubble pile.

"See, you may have had the better gun, but I'm the one who didn't wind up as a pothole."

The ground behind Ironhide churned and split as Shockwave rose out of it. Panels all over his body shifted as he transformed from his altmode into his robot form, his altform's spinning, drill-like maw reforming itself into his signature ribcage chestplate. Shockwave's blade extended from his right arm, and he took a swipe at his foe. Ironhide whipped around in time to see Shockwave's blade slice into his stomach. He stumbled backward holding his leaking midsection, and looked up into the blinding yellow glow of Shockwave's cannon barrel.

"And now, Ironhide, _you_ become nothing more than a pothole."


	4. Chapter 4

The sound of a powerful cannon being fired echoed down the hallway, bouncing off of walls, ceilings, floors; filling every part of the Arts and Science building with the explosive sound of dreadful finality. Hearing the sound, announcing proudly the death of some unfortunate Autobot, Alpha Trion and Smokescreen paused in their stride.

Turning to his protegé, Alpha Trion removed the aged book that he carried with at all times from where it was proudly displayed on his forearm. Holding it out to Smokescreen, the Elder bot spoke gravely, "Smokescreen, I fear that the Forged have forced their way past Ironhide's blockade and will soon be upon us. Take this book. No matter the cost, do not let it fall into Dece-"

"No, I can't take this," Smokescreen interrupted, "You have held it in your care since time immemorial, writing everything down, cataloguing the history of Cybertron. I am unworthy to even hold it."

"Smokescreen, I am old and will not function much longer in any situation, but if I stay and hold off the Decepticon's, it will give you time to escape this place. I do not have the time to explain why, but know that if this book falls into the hands of the Decepticons then time as we know it may be altered or altogether destroyed. I will not sacrifice the seeds of the future to maintain the past. Take the Wrecker shuttle to Earth, my former student Optimus is there, he will know what to do," He placed his hand on Smokescreen's shoulder, "You are a great warrior Smokescreen and it has been my honor serving as your teacher, but you have learned all you can from me. From this point on, you will learn from your own experiences."

Smokescreen let out a sigh, "Good bye Alpha Trion"

Smokescreen looked at the ground dejectedly before taking the book from his tutor, mounting it on his own arm, transforming into his cybertronian sports car form, and racing down the hallway.

Watching his his pupil drive away, Alpha Trions mouth curved in a sad smile and he muttered to himself, "Goodbye Smokescreen, you have the ability to be a great leader, even if you don't know it yet."

He pulled out the Quill from its sheath on his left arm, activated its blade, and turned to face where they had been minutes before, ready to fight what ever Decepticons would come his way. But those theoretical Decepticons never came, though what did happen was far worse.

The floor beneath Alpha Trion began to roil and he jumped to side, only just avoiding the large worm monster that burst out of the ground. It hit the stone floor, and disappeared into a tunnel it created. Alpha Trion turned his head from side to side, hoping to see the signs of the fiends attack before it surfaced. The ground in front of him split wide, and the horrible creature lunged at the surprised Autobot. He grabbed one of teeth, and held its maw in place. Alpha Trion tried to stab the creature, but it seemed to know what he was up to, squirming violently whenever he tried to attack.

He finally succeeded in getting in a single small blow, but that small victory was soured when a section of the spine separated and reformed into a cannon, which quickly and easily blasted his right arm off. The pain and the power of the blast interfered with his concentration, and his grip on the serrated fang of the Driller gave way. The freed beast dug its teeth into Alpha Trion's chest, lifted him into the air, and slammed head first into the ground, with Alpha Trion still attached. Alpha Trion began to slip into stasis lock from the damage, but before he went unconscious, he saw the Driller split apart and morph into the familiar, hideous form of Shockwave.

* * *

**So sorry, Ironhide fans.**


	5. Chapter 5

Smokescreen drove down the corridor at full speed, he would need to get the hangar before the Decepticons caught up to him. They hade made short work of Ironhide, and as much as he hated to admit, he would need however much time Alpha Trion could manage to buy him. He could see the entrance to the Hangar ahead, exactly where Ironhide had said it would be. He sped towards, but lost control when the ground under him shook. The rumbling sensation passed quickly, but he still had to transform into robot mode to avoid crashing into the wall. Uneasy due to the mysterious tremor, he extended his bo-staff and crept to the hangar door.

He peeked inside, to see if the coast was clear. Unfortunately, it wasn't. Several Forged troopers stood in an imperfect circle around a bot that was on his knees next to what looked like a large thick cable, nearly as wide as a the average Cybertronian. Dented, covered in energon, and missing his right arm though he was, Smokescreen recognized the bot as his master Alpha behind Alpha Trion stood someone else Smokescreen recognised. The Decepticon head scientist, Shockwave.

He crept stealthily into the hanger, hiding behind a stack of crates near the entrance. From there he could get a better view of the Hangar. The group of Cons was near the center, empty crates and energon cubes were scattered throughout. There were three vessels in the hangar, a Decepticon ship near Shockwave, a freight hauler near the crates Smokescreen was hiding behind, and on the complete opposite side of the hangar from Smokescreen, the Wrecker dropship, "Sure, of course it couldn't be on the side closest to the door, that would be to easy," he mumbled sarcastically. He decided it would be safest to wait for the cons to leave. And so he sat and listened to the conversation that was already in progress.

"... Me what I want to know, or I shall be forced to prolong your suffering. Where is the Covenant?" Shockwave demanded, "I have your Quill, but it is nothing but a shiny sword without the Book."

"That..cough...was the idea," Alpha Trion wheezed, "Splitting up the Covenant of Primus and the...cough...Quill prevents fiends like you from obtaining unlimited power."

"Ah, but it will not. For eventually I will find your apprentice, as he must show himself or in the end he will parish. And to put one's own good health aside for a relic they know nothing about, is not logical."

"Not everything in this world can be explained by your precious logic, Shockwave. You will see that at the very end, but by then it will be too late for you."

"Perhaps, but even if he attempts to escape, I have had a transwarp corrupter installed the Wrecker ship, he will only go where, and when, I want him to go. As of this moment you have ceased to be of use, and logic dictates," Shockwave aimed his cannon at Alpha Trions chest, "that your time has run out."

"Alpha Trion!" Smokescreen screamed as he bolted from his hiding place. Activating the Covenant Shield, he ran for Alpha Trion, but deep down he knew it was too late. Shockwave fired and Alpha Trions's entire torso exploded, sending shrapnel in all directions.

"Nooo!"

Shockwave swiveled to aim at Smokescreen, forcing the rookie to transform into his altmode. He drove as fast as he could towards the dropship, swerving to avoid the Forged soldiers in his way. He ramped off of a loading ramp, transformed midair and landed on the ship's roof. He opened the entrance hatch and entered the interior of the ship. Smokescreen grabbed the steering wheel and the ship scanned him.

"Autobot energy signature confirmed. A.N.T-E ship computer AI online," the robotic voice of the ship stated.

"Okay Auntie, begin liftoff and open transwarp engine compartment."  
A compartment towards the back of the ship opened, and as the ship began to liftoff, Smokescreen searched through the engine compartment for the corruptor. He found it, pulled it off of the engine, and returned to the pilot seat.

"Activate engines."

The engines started and the ship flew towards the closed hangar exit. Smokescreen fired the ships missiles, blowing the closed exit wide open, and steered the ship into the open air. But unbeknownst to him, just as the ship left the hangar, Shockwave made a running leap and grasped the edge of the ship. Pulling himself atop the ship, he charged his cannon to destroy Smokescreen.

The ship flew over Iacon, the once great city burning below. As soon as the ship cleared the last building, Smokescreen set it to autopilot, "Auntie, set transwarp coordinates for Earth, and activate transwarp engines when I give the word," he placed the transwarp corrupter on the ships object scanner, "and sync this device with the the ship's computer."

"Affirmative."

Smokescreen reclined in the pilot's chair, and closed his optics. Outside, Shockwave had managed to get to the entry hatch, and silently pulled it open. He dropped in as quietly as possible, and aimed his cannon at Smokescreen's head. He fired, but the chair spun around, and Smokescreen rose the Covenant, blocking his shot. Smokescreen stood up and swung his bo-staff at Shockwave, who had difficulty blocking due to the cramped interior of the ship, but still managed to block nonetheless. Smokescreen jabbed at Shockwave, and this time his blow connected with Shockwave's vulnerable singular optic. Shockwave blindly stumbled to the back of the ship.

"Auntie, open the loading doors," Smokescreen ordered, snatching up the transwarp corrupter. The doors opened and Smokescreen threw the corrupter with all his might. It hit the already unstable Shockwave, sending him flying out of the loading doors.

"Auntie, activate transwarp corrupter," Smokescreen commanded. The ship complied, and with a bright green flash, Shockwave disappeared. Smokescreen sat in the pilot's seat, "Auntie, close loading doors and activate transwarp engines."

The transwarp engines activated and the ship, along with its inhabitant, left Cybertron behind.

* * *

**Sorry, Alpha Trion fans.**


	6. Chapter 6

**After all that death, how about a slightly more light-hearted chapter.**

**Edit: I had a lot of technical difficulties with posting this chapter, so feel free to tell me if anything seems off.**

* * *

Planet: Earth, Location: Jasper, Nevada.

Several years later.

A half dozen engines revved like a pack of roaring lions, their exhaust ports spewing out smoke and other fumes like a thick, noxious fog. The six cars lined up; a grey muscle car with orange flame designs, an azure and pink Corvette Stingray, a green muscle car, two nearly identical hot pink cars with lime and purple trim, and finally a white and blue custom F1 Racecar. The referee for the street race didn't even try to pretend that this was going to be fair, he just twisted the corners of his mouth upward in a half grimace, half smile and gave a thumbs up to the six drivers. The four he could see returned the gesture, but he had to assume the drivers of the white-blue and azure cars returned the sign, seeing as their windshields were tinted.

He stepped into the middle of the road and pulled the rolled up checkered flag out of his pocket. Raising it into the air, he counted to three, then swished the flag through the air in a large figure eight. The cars rushed by and, despite the dark hair that blew across his eyes, he could see the Formula One quickly overtaking most of the other cars. He turned to his own mundane, off-white car and hopped into the driver's seat, the comforting yellow glow of the interior light soothing his nerves.

He pulled his cellphone from his back pocket and flipped it open. He speed dialed the number of a friend of his family, a friend who he was currently doing a favor for. He held the sleek device to his ear and listened to the phone on the receiving end ring for an unusually long time, or rather, an unusually long time if it had been anyone else. A minute or so later a gruff voice answered, "Who is it? I'm in the middle of something, so make it quick."

"It's Jack. The race has begun. They should be at your position soon."

"Ah, okay, affirmative. Fanzone over and out." The voice replied. The sounds of fumbling could be heard on the other side, and Jack held in a laugh, "This," clickity click, "is why," clackity click, "I hate... zzzzzzt!" Jack closed his phone with a chuckle and put it back in his pocket.

* * *

Before long, the twins and the green car were so far behind the other three racers that they were out of view. The F1 and the grey car were neck and neck, while the blue Corvette was slightly behind them. The driver of the F1 was trying furiously to force its opponent against the walls of the freeway they were currently on. However, the driver of the grey car was doing a great job of fighting back, and the F1 swerved to the left to prepare for a particularly savage swipe. At the precise moment it prepared to swipe the other car, its opponent slowed down and the F1 only succeeded in ramming into the wall itself.

The grey car rocketed ahead, while the blue car stopped next to the F1. The green car and the two pinks soon passed them. Inside both of the stationary cars, the dashboards lit up a bright blue and voices began passing on the airwaves between the two; the dashboards becoming brighter in time with the speech, "Are you alright, Mirage?" asked a feminine voice from the Corvette.

"Of course I'm fine! Its just a scratch! Who do you think I am, Arcee? Knockout?" The F1 replied as it rocketed ahead, leaving its right front wheel behind.

Arcee huffed and rushed ahead to join Mirage, her Cybertronian engine easily catching up with him, "You dropped something."  
"I didn't drop it, I put it down! It was just causing friction with the road and making me slower," The racecar growled at Arcee, who would have laughed if it had been anyone else. His axle was grinding against the street. Less friction, indeed! But it was Mirage, and any sign of laughter at his antics could lead to a beating. Nonetheless, they were still making good time, and soon they crested the hill that was the halfway point of the race. They both skidded to a stop. At the bottom of the hill, the other four cars were surrounded by police cars, including a bright yellow one.

"Scrap!"

"I was actually thinking: Ha ha, you lose!" the F1 replied.

"No, Look. Bumblebee."

"So?"

"So, if Bumblebee is here that means someone noticed we were gone. When Optimus chews us out, I'm going to blame you. After all, you did run off, and someone had to follow you."

"Optimus," there was obvious contempt in the mech's voice,"can blow it out his exhaust. We didn't hurt anything."

"Besides breaking several human laws."

"Your point is? Its not like we attracted Decepticoooooh, scrap!" A brown detective coupé had joined the police cars. Thankfully Bumblebee had noticed as well, and the yellow police car was already inching its way out of the circle.

Arcee and Mirage said the same word in unison, their high beams blinking in alarm "Soundwave!"

* * *

Soundwave watched all of the activity from the back of the circle of vehicles, his cameras recording everything; searching for the two Autobots he came to fight. Minutes before, his radio had picked up police chatter about a street race, which he usually ignored. This time was different, the usual four offenders were listed, but this time they were followed with descriptions of a blue Corvette and an F1 race car. Descriptions matching Arcee and Mirage.

Now he found out he not not just two Autobots for the price of one, but three. Bumblebee had rolled up seconds after he did, and Soundwave inched forward into the circle of light created by the police cars' headlights. The Autobot scout noticed, and apparently so did someone else, because three bright beams of light blinked in and out of existence briefly on top of the hill to his right. He backed out of the circle just as Bumblebee rushed past him and followed; deactivating his headlights and following in the dark parts of the street.

Bumblebee reached the other two Autobots first, and the trio of vehicles rocketed away. Soundwave began to follow them, but a cream-colored vehicle drove by him seconds into the chase; heading towards the police. A car with a distinct Cybertronian signature. Normally this wouldn't vex him; all vehicles on this planet had a weak Cybertronian signal. This time was different however; it was stronger, though it was still to weak to be that of an Autobot. The communications officer parked for a moment to think about what he should do, the Autobots were getting away and the car could just be a distraction.

No, he discarded that thought immediately, the soft-sparked Autobots would not put another lifeform in harms way to save themselves. Honorable. That meant the other vehicle could only logically (Primus he hated that word!) be a human device augmented by Cybertronian technology; not the weak, only barely Cybertronian technology used in all human technology since the Cold War, but pure, possible even energon-fueled Cybertronian tech. So the only reasonable conclusion that he could reach was the involvement of that human group, what where they called? He searched his files. Ah, yes. Sector Seven.

That settled it, the whole reason he was following the Autobots was to learn ways to bait Sector Seven, but if he could lure them out another way, he would gladly do so. Hunting was more Bonecrusher's thing anyway. He u-turned and drove back to the the area where the arrests were taking place, pulling back into the shadows. The white car had stopped beside a yellow compact car that Soundwave recognized as the Police Captain's car. He noted the license plate in his logs and began running his hidden optics over the dwindling crowd of people and vehicles.

A blonde-headed male human of approximately seventeen years of age walked by the off-white car wearing what Soundwave supposed was the human equivalent off stasis cuffs. A police officer held the chain that kept the metal rings together tightly, but his hands being restrained didn't keep the teen from spouting off with his mouth. He let out a string of what the Decepticon's internal dictionary told him were profanities, before roaring in the direction of the car window, "I'll get you Darby! You hear me? You set us up and now my car is wrecked and the pigs are gonna lock me up. You'll pay for this!"

Darby. Where had Soundwave heard that name before? He checked his memory banks and found the file he needed. "Agent S7-2. Name: Jackson Alan Darby Sr. - Status: Deceased. - Replaced: No. - Possible Replacement: Jackson Alan Darby Jr. - Notes: Killed in action. NBE-278 responsible. Position to be filled by son, when of age. - File Ended."

Bingo. Soundwave entered the car's signature into his data base and began a profile on Jack Darby. After he had finished, which only took seconds due to how little he knew about the human, he opened a comm channel to the Victory, "Lord Megatron, this is Soundwave," Most Decepticons couldn't just call Lord Megatron on a whim, but Soundwave was Communications officer, that gave him special privileges.

"Hello Soundwave," if Soundwave was a human he would have no doubt dropped his cell phone in shock. He had been expecting the calm and controlled voice of Lord Megatron, not the screech of a plane rapidly going to a meeting with ground. Or at least, that is what the voice of the bot on the other end sounded like, "Lord Megatron is unavailable at the moment, and he left me in charge."

"Oh joy. When will he be back, Starscream?"

"He didn't say. And its_ Commander_ Starscream."

"We're equal rank, just because I am not a military bot doesn't mean I'm not a lieutena... Oh, never mind. Just get Flatline to open a bridge at these coordinates. I have some information I need to deliver to Lord Megatron."

"Very well. One groundbridge," Starscream paused and Soundwave could picture the jet making a grand gesture on the other side, "coming right up."

"Thank you, Commander Starscream," Soundwave had found it was best not to refer to the seeker by his rank until you had what you wanted, otherwise he would be too high and mighty to listen to anyone's orders, even Lord Megatron's. Soundwave pulled away from the crime scene, which was now all but clear of vehicles, and drove slowly to location he had given Starscream: a dark alleyway between two buildings. A rat scampered away in fear as a swirling green portal appeared partway down the corridor. Soundwave rolled quietly into the alley, accidentally crushing the organic scavenger on the way, and entered the groundbridge. Every part of his chassis rattling ; electricity arcing from piece to piece. Then, all at once, the portal and car disappeared from the alley and reappeared in a dark and sterile room lit only by the dim red lights overhead and the glow of the groundbridge.

The detective coupé shuddered for a moment and then exploded, but in a very controlled way. The pieces moved outward on various armatures and wires, twisting around each other and sliding between other parts; reforming after a few seconds. The result was far different from the old car it had been before. It was a boxy robot with long wing-like arms (formed from the front and back doors) that ended in three long fingers and an equally long thumb. The front of the vehicle became legs and feet, while the rear of the vehicle formed the torso and a massive shoulder-cannon that ended in the vehicle's exhaust pipe. A sleek head that was taken up almost entirely by a silver mouth-guard and a pair of orange optics appeared out of the top of the torso.

Soundwave stood to his full height and strode towards the exit of the Groundbridge Lab. He walked past Flatline and reached for the door control pad, but was stopped by a hand on his shoulder, "Hup, up, up. You know the rules Soundwave, anybot in direct contact with organics must be decontaminated before entering the rest of the base."

"I made no contact with the humans I was monitoring," Soundwave said in his signature monotone, making an obvious effort to hide the remains of the rat smeared on his wheels.

"_Any_ organic," The red and black medic said, forcefully this time; gesturing at the smear of blood and fleshy remains. Soundwave sighed, though it sounded more like static, and followed the medic to the energon decontamination bath. Soundwave entered the cylindrical machine and waited while the doctor entered some instructions into the keypad that controlled the device. The tube-like machine came to life. Arms and pipes appeared out of the floors, the pipes spraying a thin layer of solvent that targeted organic compounds over his whole body while an arm scanned him for the largest deposits of organic tissue. Another set of arms started scrubbing away at the areas the scanner deemed most important. Soon it was finished and the cylinder opened, allowing Soundwave to step out.

"The drying cycle is still malfunctioning," Soundwave growled, cleaning fluid forming a puddle under his feet, "get it fixed. That is an order."

"Excuse me? I am the lead medical technician, I outrank you when it comes to medical equipment."

Soundwave narrowed his optics and turned to the exit, mumbling, "Sometimes I think we have too many lieutenants on this ship."


	7. Chapter 7

**I'm glad you're enjoying it. :)**

* * *

Commander Starscream stood looking through the large transparent viewscreen that made up the entire side of the Decepticon warship-turned-military-base known as the _Vict_ory. It had been not long ago that the Decepticon exploration vessel met its Autobot equivalent, the _Axalon_, in battle. The magnificent black and orange Decepticon ship had somehow fallen to the small Autobot ship, despite its vastly superior firepower. Nonetheless, its commanders made due; building the ship into the floor of the ocean on which it fell. Mere years later it had become a sprawling complex with many tubes carrying magma from inside the earth into the ship for refinement and its myriad of energon mining tunnels spreading out in all directions.

Starscream's optics beamed with pride as he watched over his handiwork, and indeed it was his handiwork. While Megatron had battled the Autobots over even the smallest shred of information about the location of more warriors or energon, while Soundwave spied upon the Autobots so much that Starscream often feared he was becoming one, while Flatline and Tarantulas wasted their time with creating new , less efficient, forms of weaponry, Starscream and his armada had been rebuilding their base from the ground up.

And yet, for all his trouble, all he got was yelled at and defied at every turn. Where would Megatron's war be without energon to refuel on? Where would the doc bots' gadgets be without the raw materials he salvaged. Where would Soundwave be without his...

"Commander Starscream."

"Gah! Don't shoot!" Starscream flinched and held his hands in the air as he turned to face the speaker. Starscream lowered his hands in embarrassment when he saw that it was Soundwave, "Oh. Soundwave. Of course. I was just, erm, stretching."

"Uh huh," the brown and white bot replied; the fact that he did not believe Starscream painfully obvious in his voice, "Is Lord Megatron back yet?"

"You just asked me that 20 cycles ago!"

"That is irrelevant."

Starscream pinched the bridge of his beak-like nose, and sighed, "No Soundwave, Lord Megatron is not back yet, nor will he be back anytime soon. Understand?" Mere seconds after Starscream finished the sentence, the command room's main door slid open to reveal a tall silver bot with a black and red holo-cape billowing out behind him. Soundwave saluted, while the air commander just sat there with his faceplates turning red, whether from anger or embarrassment it was hard to be sure, "It seems that I stand corrected. Lord Megatron, back so soon? May I suppose that you beat those worthless Autobots to scrap and claimed the prize. After all, the great Megatron would never return empty handed."

The silver bot glanced at Starscream with a look of contempt and growled, "Shut up, Starscream."

"Of course, Lord Megatron," Starscream scurried out of his master's way.

Soundwave walked to his leader's side and reported, "Lord Megatron, I have discovered something in the course of my usual patrols that may be useful," he sent Megatron a copy of the file for Jack Darby, "This human seems to have connections to the Autobots or, at the very least, Sector seven. It may be possible to use him to gain access to Sector Seven Operation: Polyphemus and the related NBE. An additional warrior would be very beneficial to our cause."

"Well done, Soundwave," the Decepticon leader replied with a denta baring grin. He turned to his air commander, "Starscream, send Bonecrusher to procure the organic."

"Yes, my liege," Starcream replied with a bow. Megatron turned and exited the room, and as soon as he was gone, Starscream turned to Soundwave and growled, "We want it alive, don't we? There is no way I'm sending Bonecrusher to do that. He would smash the fleshy, then where would we be? I would advise a more tactical method," He pointed a talon-like finger at Soundwave and grinned evilly, "You will get the human's femme batch initiator and leave a ransom note... or something. We will make the organic come to us."

* * *

June Darby sat on the massive floral sofa that took up most of her living room staring at the clock on the baby-blue living room wall. She glanced at the large sheet she had been trying to concentrate on embroidering ever since Jack left to help Carmine earlier that night, but she just could not seem to put her all into it. She looked back up at the clock, it was less than a minute since last time she checked. Frustrated, she pushed her needles into a pincushion and folded the sheet back into a more manageable square before tucking it under her arm and standing to her feet.

She started walking towards her walk in closet, but stopped in her tracks when she heard a car pull into the driveway. She tossed the fabric on the kitchen table on the way to the door. June opened the door; expecting to see her son's off-white sedan sitting on the gravel path. The car she saw was not her son's. It was a brown and white detective coupé that was slowly and nearly silently extending three leathery tendrils over the lawn towards the house.

"No!" June gasped as she slammed the door and turned to run for the kitchen. She crashed into the coat-rack, and it clattered to the floor. She ignored the ache that it left in her shoulder and opened the door to the dinning room, but before she could enter, something grabbed her leg and pulled her to the floor. As it pulled her to the door, she grabbed onto the door frame; pulling herself through the entrance. After she was in the dining room, she struggled to her feet just long enough to grab a steak knife. She rolled over on her back the moment the tentacle pulled her back to the floor and slashed at the appendage with the knife.

It released her momentarily and she scrambled to her feet. She burst into the kitchen, placed the knife on the island, pulled the phone from its cradle, and immediately began dialing an emergency number that her late husband had given her. She didn't have enough time to fully dial the number before the tendril yanked her off of her feet with such force that it left her breathless and began dragging her to the door. She grabbed onto the coat-rack with one hand and the extra weight slowed the creature down enough for her to finish the call. June's grip faltered and the tentacle pulled her into the car's interior.

* * *

Agent William Fowler sat at his desk in Sector Seven HQ, filing paperwork for the latest bit of trouble the Autobots had managed to get themselves into. He sighed as he wrote down the name of the Autobot spy: Mirage. He always found a way to sneak out and partake in some illegal activity, usually street racing. The other Autobot that had caused the trouble wasn't out of the ordinary for something like this either, but for an entirely different reason. Arcee would always go with Mirage or Bumblebee on their escapades to make sure that they didn't do anything too troublesome.

Fowler was thankful for her thoughtfulness, but sometimes he wondered if it was really worth the extra trouble. He set his pencil down next the the paper where he was writing the first draft for his report and pinched the bridge of his nose. He really did like helping the bots and wouldn't feel quite right doing anything else, but sometimes they really got on his nerves. Whether it was Mirage or Bumblebee racing someone on the freeway, Prime's lack of understanding about the American legal system, or Tankor and his habit of taking matters into his own hands, there was always some kind of complaint he was forced to deal with.

He was rudely jolted from his reviree by the sound of a ringing phone. He snatched it up and held it to his ear, "This is Agent William Fowler, how can I help you?" No reply, "Hello?" There was no answer yet again, but this time there were sounds of struggling on the other side "Okay, who in Ben Franklin's wig are you? Do you think you can just prank call federal offices?"

There was the sound of a revving engine and a screamed, single word reply, "HELP!"  
"June?" The line went dead, "June!"


	8. Chapter 8

The Autobot base was filled with the annoyed scolding of Optimus Prime and the defensive yelling of Mirage when Fowler walked in through the small human entrance that Tankor had created in the back of the crashed ship.

"...was just a little joyride Optimus. Tell him 'Cee. We didn't hurt anything," the snooty, holier-than-thou voice of the Autobot aristocrat called Mirage whined.

"Other than yerselves ya mean," another voice drawled in a Southern American accent.

"Nay. I have bally well lost a bloody lot worse in Meta Legion Maximized Foxbear hunts, my good chap. What is a wheel but a round chunk of rubber. Varilly I say, it is but a hunk of synthetic bounciness, I say," a chipper voice echoed down the tunnels in a bad impersonation of Mirage.

Fowler turned the corner into the main room just in time to see Mirage glare in the direction of the small, yellow bot who had been mocking him. Fowler did his best to hide the slight amusement on his face and blurted out, "Prime! We have a problem. June Darby has been kidnapped."

* * *

Jack knew that something was wrong the instant he pulled into the driveway that led up to his house. For one thing, the door was wide open. For another, the coat-rack that usually sat next to the entrance was pulled most of the way through the doorway and the jackets were scattered around the area. He shifted the car into park and threw open the car door; immediately running to see what had happened.

"Mom, I'm home," he called out as he righted the coat-rack. He noticed a glowing blue substance oozing around the dinning room doorway, "Mom?"

He dropped the coat that he was holding from his hand and rushed into the dinning room. He glanced around the room and tried to find the source of the fluid. He found the main pool and followed a trail of small drops to the kitchen entryway. He walked through the open door slowly and followed the drops to the island, where a single knife sat. Its blade was covered in the blue substance. Jack reached down to pick it up, but he pulled his hand back in pain when his finger brushed some of the ooze.

"Gah! What is this stuff? Whatever it is, Mom's not here and this place is wrecked, I need to call Captain Fanzone," he thought aloud as he pulled his cellphone from his pocket. He flipped it open but its screen remained dark, "Dead battery. Great," he rushed over to the kitchen counter where the phone cradle sat. It was empty, "Okay, something is definitely wrong here."

He didn't have any idea of where to find the phone, so he dejectedly wandered through the house to charge the phone in his car. As he exited the dinning room, he noticed something that he had overlooked before. What looked like an SD card was stuck to the interior side of the main door, along with a somewhat metallic peice of paper that read:_ Come to these coordinates. We have your femme batch initiator. Come alone._

Jack snatched up the card and rushed back to his car. It took some fiddling around to figure out where the card was meant to go, but he soon found its place, the memory card slot in the vehicles GPS unit. He placed the card in its proper place, and instantly the the GPS flared to life; marking a route to a desolate stretch of desert a few miles out of town. He turned on the car and sped towards his destination.

* * *

Fowler had explained the situation to the Autobots and they had began discussing how to find June. Due to the Darbys' background, it was almost certain that the Decepticons were to blame, but that only made the situation harder. As everyone else argued about how to best start the serach, Tankor sat at the Axalon's main screen scanning the frequencies for any sign of activity. Just as he was about to give up, a blip with an unknown Decepticon energy signature appeared heading from Jasper, Nevada into the desert, "Everyone be quiet. We have a reading."

"Thank Lincoln," Fowler sighed relieved, "Where to, big guy?"

"The Nevada Desert," Tankor replied somewhat distantly as he ran the calculations for both the most likely destination of the signal's owner and the groundbridge that would take them there. He finished his calculations and opened the bridge, "I cannot determine the exact destination, so I will open the bridge at the signal's current coordinates.

Optimus Prime morphed into his cabover semi truck mode, followed by Arcee, Mirage, and Bumblebee morphing into their alternate forms as well, "Autobots, transform and roll out."

* * *

The tracking signal for Soundwave's beacon appeared on the primary control console of the Victory and Starscream immediately screeched out, "Lord Megatron, target is on its way."

"Excellent, Starscream," the seeker's master replied as he shifted into his attack helicopter mode and flew into the swirling vortex that Flatline opened for him, "Today is the beginning of the end for the Autobots. Soon we will have access to their primary networks. Then, we will release all of our brethren they have captured in their vaults. Then, as our captured allies overrun them from within, we will be victorious!"

"Let's just focus on one thing at a time Lord Megatron," Flatline replied over Megatron's commlink, "We don't want you going off on an unnecessarily long speech like Prime."

"Very well, old friend," Megatron muttered, somewhat disappointed, and began turning his power from pontificating and towards reaching Jack as quickly as possible. However, a bright blue laser blast flew past him before he had even gotten near the human. He quickly traced the trajectory of the shot to the ground, where a red and blue semi sped across the dusty ground. Only when he zoomed in his vision was he able to distinguish the blue femme perched on the back of it.

Megatron chuckled and transformed. The front half of his fuselage split into three large chunks; the upper quarter which contained the rotor morphed into his left arm, the lower quarter and minigun forming his right arm, while the rest formed his torso. The majority of the rear half of his altmode formed into his thin legs, but the tail and rear rotor assemble formed into his signature mace. His head extended from his torso and last of all, his cockpit (which was now mounted on his shoulder) projected his holographic cape.

He held his arms and legs out from his chassis to slow his fall and pulled his mace-holding left arm back for a powerful blow. He landed in front of the Autobots and they skidded to avoid crashing into him. Arcee imediately jumped off of Optimus's back and both Bumblebee and Mirage transformed. That was when Megatron struck; running out of the dust cloud and bringing his mace down on Prime's roof before the semi could transform.  
Optimus revved his engine and rammed into Megatron. The Autobot leader transformed and jumped; grabbing his foes shoulders and slamming him into the ground. Megatron rolled over to throw the Prime off of him before firing a stream of energy from his cannon. Optimus whipped out his energon sword and blocked the blow and rushed towards Megatron. He didn't need to strike another blow. As soon as Prime stood, Arcee and Bumblebee both rushed Megatron and held him to the ground, while Mirage held his pistol to the warlord's helm.

Optimus sheathed his weapon and demanded answers from Megatron, "Where is June Darby?"

The Decepticon leader laughed mockingly before replying, "Soundwave has both her and her son safe in the Victory by now. You failed Prime," as soon as he finished speaking, a flash of green lit up the sky, followed by the bright red beams of Decepticon laserfire falling towards the Autobots like rain. Mirage had to jump backwards to avoid a shot and one blast caught Arcee in the shoulder. Megatron took advantage of the distraction and threw Bumblebee to the ground as he stood to his feet, "And now, if you don't mind," he slammed his mace into Optimus's arm as the Prime reached for his sword and morphed back into vehicle form, "I shall take my leave, yes," He lifted into the sky.

Optimus put his hand to the side of his head and spoke, "Tankor, Soundwave has Mrs. Darby and Megatron is on his way. Open the bridge to the signal's current coordinates and retrieve Mrs. Darby."

"What about you?" the Autobot medic asked just as a trio of Decepticon Sweep drones landed around the four Autobots in the desert.

"I'm afraid that we will be delayed," he turned to Mirage and pointed towards the coordinates. Mirage nodded and ran off, "I'm sending Mirage to back you up."

"Peachy. Tankor out."


	9. Chapter 9

Tankor opened the vortex to the new coordinates and morphed into his vehicular form, a large green and grey-brown pickup truck with a camper shell, "Agent Fowler, keep the base running when I'm gone."

"No way, big guy. This involves the family of a," he paused for a moment, "former S7 agent. By Roosevelt, I'm gonna be there."

Tankor just sat there for a few seconds before his door popped open, "Fine. In ya go,"Fowler hopped in and the Autobot drove through the green portal.

* * *

Jack stepped out of his car into the cool night air of the Nevada desert. Directly ahead of him, not even ten yards away, was a solitary brown and white coupe with darkly tinted windows. It bore a streak of glowing blue running down the side from the door, and he noted this fact as he walked towards it; holding the metallic note in his right hand. As he stood next to it, he waited for something to happen, "What was I expecting, for the car to turn into some robot like those stories Mom told me when I was little?" he asked himself when the vehicle still hadn't done anything after about a minute and a half.

He hesitantly reached for the handle for the driver side door, only to jump back when the door popped open on its own. Three seatbelts struck out from the interior of the car and Jack was forced to dodge to his left to avoid them. He ran back to his car and dove into the driver's seat , putting the car into forward drive and crushing the gas pedal to the floorboards.

The sedan shot forward towards the brown and white coupe as Jack desperately cranked the steering wheel to the left; barely avoiding a collision with the front half of the brown car. His car slowed suddenly when the tendrils wrapped around his car's rear axle.

"Okay, if that's how you want it to be," the teen growled as he put the car in reverse gear. He hit the gas and ground the three appendages into the dirt. Their grip loosened and Jack put the car in drive and shot forwards. The other vehicle's engine grolwed and began to follow. Jack started to drive towards town, when he remembered that whoever was in that car had his mother. He turned his car around and stopped it. The brown coupe drove up in front of him and stopped.

Then everything went to the pit. The brown car split into the tower form of a robot. Jack hit the gas; ramming into its legs at full speed. The creature nearly toppled, but managed to support itself on its long, winglike arms. It looked at him, and his blood ran cold. It slipped one hand under the front of his car and suddenly flicked it upwards. The car lifted onto the back bumper and probably would have fallen down if the robot hadn't propped it up with its hand.

Two tentacles extended from its chest, bent and leaking the blue fluid though they were, and gripped the front doors of Jack's vehicle. Then, in a single swift motion, they both pulled to either side; wrenching the doors from their hinges. A third tentacle that bore a slash mark in addition to the section Jack had crushed appeared from inside the beast as well and extended towards the sedan's windshield.

Jack weighed his options. If he stayed in the car the monstrous machine would surely get him. If he ran, however, the waiting tendrils would snatch him up in an instant. Since the third tentacle was showing no signs of stopping, he decided he would have to risk it. He rolled out of the car door and struggled to his feet. He heard the sound of the straps heading towards him and ducked. They whizzed over his head and he could hear the sound of the third one demolishing his car, "Well there goes my Sweet Sixteen present from Bill," He snarked grimly.

The ground shook as the robotic monstrosity approached. Jack tripped when one of the straps whipped across the back of his legs. He started to crawl away, but one of the seatbelts wrapped around his body and lifted him into the air. It turned him around to face the robot and began pulling him towards the open chest of the monster, which was open, allowing him to catch a momentary glimpse of, "Mom?" She was tied up in the chest chamber and seemed to be unconcious.

Jack began to struggle, but it was entirely uneeded. Within moments there was a flash of green followed by a few shorter flashes of blue and the grip of the appendage slipped; dropping the human to the ground. Jack turned around to see a much larger green and brown robot slam into the other. He tried to stand, but found that his hip hurt too much to stand. He collapsed in pain until he felt a hand on his shoulder, "Need a hand, son?"

Jack looked up at the speaker, "Bill?"

"That's right. Can you stand?"

"My hip hurts. I'm not sure what's wrong."

"Let me see," Fowler leaned down and examined Jack's leg, "Its popped out of its socket. I can pop it back in, but its too dangerous to do here," a stray laser shot melted the sand next to them into glass, as if to underline the agent's point, "I'm gonne help you walk to somewhere safer. Okay."

"Mom. She's inside that... thing," Jack grunted in pain.

"What!?" Fowler exclaimed, obviously startled. He turned to Tankor, who was just about to punch Soundwave in the chest, "Wait a minute, Tankor! He's got June in his Minicon compartment."

"Acknowledged," Tankor punched Soundwave in the face instead and the Decepticon went sprawling out on the ground. Tankor leaned over to rescue June from her prison, but he was kicked down and pinned to the ground by a large silver foot.

"It seems that the Autobot super medic has been caught by surprise, yes."

"Eat slag Megatron," Tankor drawled as he kicked out with both pedes ; catching Megatron's leg and nearly sending the Decepticon leader crashing down on top of him. Tankor rolled to his left and Megatron fell too his knees. Tankor stood up and pointed his arm at Megatron as it shifted into his signature chainguns.

He glanced behind him in time to see Fowler helping Jack hobble into the event horizon of the groundbridge. He turned and sprinted towards the gateway, but was caught in the back by a volley of energy blasts from Megatron's minigun, "Leaving already? I don't think I can let you do that, no."

Tankor turned and inclined both arms towards Megatron as the second appendage morphed to match the first. Megatron chuckled and activated his left arm's hard-light shield; holding it in front of him to block the inevitable barrage of laserfire from the Autobot's cannons. At the same time, he lifted his own right arm and began sending extra energy to his minigun. The weapon began to change form; the barrels whirling out from the main core of the gun as a swirling orb of energy formed in the center of the huge, reality-bending weapon known as the fusion cannon.

Tankor fired his chainguns simultaneously; the seemingly unnending stream of fire refusing to give Megatron a chance to fire his own weapon. The Decepticon grunted and began to slowly march toward Tankor, while the Autobot began to retreat to the safety of the groundbridge. Just as Tankor was placing taking his first step into the portal, Megatron charged; running as fast as he could under the strain of his foes weaponry. Seeing Megatron close the distance, Tankor closed the groundbridge with a mental command and transformed one gun into his melee weapon, a sphere covered in a score of sharp spikes.

The slight lull in Tankor's firepower gave Megatron the chance he needed, and the warlord peeked his cannon out from the edge of his shield and fired. The blast streaked through the air like a comet and struck Tankor's shin. Megatron rushed towards the fallen Autobot; pulling his mace from its sheath as he ran. He rose it to strike the Autobot in the back, but though Tankor was down, he wasn't out. He fired his gatling at the now unshielded warlord; sending the silver bot staggering backwards clutching his chest.

Tankor used his undamaged leg to jump up and slam his club into Megatron's face. Megatron knocked away the Autobot's arm when it was inches from his face; the spiked orb scraping across his shoulder instead. A second later, he slammed his own weapon down on Tankor's arm; bending it backward farther than it was meant to go. The medic gritted his teeth in pain and ducked from a consecutive blow from the Decepticon leader. Megatron merely flicked out the rotors on his left arm in a quick slash that hit his opponents chest.

Now the Decepticon had the upper hand as Magatron spun around with his mace extended and slammed the weapon into the medic's chest with a powerful blow that sent him flying backwards. Megatron strode towards Tankor nonchalantly; growling, "And that, Autobot, is why I am the leader of the Decepticons."

Megatron aimed his cannon at his foes head, laughed, and... tumbled over onto his back with a scream. The air above his chest shimmered and then bubbled into the form of Mirage, "Ah, how this reminds me of the theatre. Energon shed, a dashingly heroic Deus ex Machina, and dust dust dust."

"Just shut your vocal emmiter and help me to my feet," Tankor grumbled at the Autobot spy.

"Me?! You must be joking. I already saved your life and now you expect me to help you up too. The rabble is so demanding. I am an aristocrat, you should be helping me."

Tankor resisted the urge to slap his faceplate with his undamaged servo, but he still said, "Stop with upperclassbot scrap and help me up. Now!"

Mirage huffed and jumped off of Megatron's chest to help his ally, but flinched when he heard the Decepticon stand to his feet, "We're slagged."

"Hurry," Tankor blurted out as he reactivated the bridge, "we need to get out of here."

This time Mirage listened, rushing over to the Medic and hauling him to his pedes. They walked through the bridge shut it down just as Megatron fired a shot towards it.

"That was a close one," Mirage stated, with a look of relief on his face.

"Speaking of close ones, what took ya so long? I know you were there for most of the fight," Tankor growled.

"It was fun to watch. Besides, its not like you were in any real danger," Mirage explained.

"You make Bumblebee look like a Prime. Now, if you don't mind, help me to the medical berth."

Mirage obliged him, but the base's commlink blared as he was doing so, prompting the spy to scream, "One moment!" After he finished helping the medic, he walked to the machine and his the glyph for speak, "Hello, who is it?"

The sounds of blasterfire echoed from the other side and he almost couldn't hear the speaker's voice, "Mirage, this is Optimus. Did you and Tankor rescue Mrs. Darby?"

"Nope, there were," he glanced at Jack under sedation on the couch they kept in the base for Fowler's visits, "complications."

"I see. Well if you're not too busy," and explosion could be heard in the background, and Optimus stopped his communications with Mirage to shout some orders at Arcee and Bumblebee before finishing the sentence, "a groundbridge would be prime."

"Okay, one moment," Mirage started to activate the groundbridge, but was taking a long time, "Slagging minimalistic user interface!" He finally got it working, "Oaky, here you go."

"Well done," Optimus thanked him and then ordered the others to retreat. Seconds later, they came striding through the swirling, green portal. Bumblebee came through first; speeding in on his foot mounted wheels. Arcee appeared next, splattered in energon and firing her sniper rifle through the vortex. Finally, in came Optimus; blocking shots from the Sweeps on the other side of the energy tunnel with his sword and returning shots of his own.

Once he was through, Mirage deactivated the bridge and Optimus turned to Agent Fowler, "Agent Fowler, I am sorry that we failed to rescue Mrs. Darby."

"You are not to blame Prime. It was my fault. It's my job to moniter the families of Sector Seven agents, and I failed."

They turned to the couch when they heard Jack roar, "Not your fault?! You failed, and now my mom is in the hands of that robot freak!"

Optimus leaned over to have his head level with the human teen and frowned, "Jackson Darby. Do not blame Agent Fowler, I am responsible, because I involved your mother and father in my war."

Jack frowned and asked, "Who are you?"

"I am Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots."

"Autobot?"

"The Autobots are one faction of a race of sentient robots from the planet Cybertron," Fowler explained, "They are at war with the Decepticons."

"Was the robot who kidnapped my mother a Decepticon?" Jack inquired.

Tankor answered this time, "Yes, his name is Soundwave, the Decepticon communications specialist."

"I'm not sure why they would abduct June. She worked with Sector Seven, but she didn't have access to anything classified."

"They left a ransom note on my door, but they didn't ask for a ransom, just for me to come to their coordinates."

"Then," Optimus looked grim, "it seems that Jack, not June, was the real target."

"But why? Why could they possibly want me?"

Fowler forrowed his brow and muttered something before looking up, "There was a leak in our database a couple of months ago, and some information was copied by an unknown party. We couldn't trace it at the time and we still haven't been able to even now, but we do know that the information was mostly information on our agents and their families. Now it seems that the Decepticons think that Jack is an S7 agent."

Jack looked confused, "You've mentioned it several times, but you never explained, what is Sector Seven?"

"An organization founded by seven government officials to moniter the actions of both Autobots and Decepticons. I can't tell you who all of them are, but I can tell you that I, Captain Fanzone, and your father were all founders. Chances are, the Decepticons got wind of the fact that we intended to make you an Agent if you were willing," Fowler explained.

"But why? What does it matter to an army of massive robots if a few humans study them?"

"Because," Optimus Prime spoke, "Sector Seven has one of their leaders in containment. They no doubt wish to release him and require the access codes to do so. Seeing as you are the newest 'member', they likely see you as the easiest source of information. They will most likely try to capture you again, so you will need a guardian."

"No thanks," Jack crossed his arms in annoyance, "You've done enough."

"Jack," Fowler adressed him, "we understand your frustration with us, but you need the bots protection. The Cons aren't going to stop after one attempt and you can't fight one on your own."

"No thank you," Jack hopped down from the couch and began marching towards a human-sized exit to the room, "I have no interest in Autobot help," He exited and slammed the door.

Prime frowned and turned to face his troops, "Bumblebee, follow him and warn us if you see any Decepticons."

"Sure thing, Big Bot," the small yellow bot chirped and ran through the bot entrance to search for the teen.

Fowler sighed, "Prime, I don't see this going well."


	10. Chapter 10

**Thanks for the positive reviews, everyone. I'm glad your enjoying it!**

**By the way, HardyGal, your reviews showed up to me just now, so I will answer your questions in this Author's Note. **

**Q: What continuity is this?**

**A: This is my personal continuity, but is heavily based on Prime.**

**Q: When is this set?**

**A: Just after the War for Cybertron and just before the main part of the war on Earth.**

**Now, to the show, erm, chapter!**

* * *

Jack rushed down the small corridor, but he had to go slowly. For one thing, the floor was poorly welded together, as if it had been made as quickly as possible; for another, he had to read the signs that were bolted above the myriad of doors in the hallway, as not to miss what he was looking for. He noted that the doors were separated into sections; all of the doors to one side bearing related signs for about a dozen or so doors, while the doors on the other side did the same.

There seemed to be a door to everything that he could possibly ever need if he were an Autobot: groundbridge power supply, primary and secondary energon stores, special energon stores, armory, Teletraan information core, and many others strange things that he could not figure out what they meant. The door he was looking for, however, did not seem to be among them, so he kept walking. It was several minutes, and a couple dozen doors later when he found the one he was looking for at the very end of the hall: Exit.

He dashed to the door, wrapped his hand around the handle, and pulled. It stuck. He pulled again. It creaked slightly outwards. It pulled one last time with all his might and the door swung towards him. There was just another wall beyond. He shrugged and stepped into the room and the door pulled itself shut behind him; causing him to spin around in fright, "What?!" The floor lurched, "Whoooaaah!" It slowed to a stop and a hydraulic whoosh sounded as the sides of the room slowly folded away; revealing, "The outside. But where are we?"

He gazed out over the desert landscape, covered in mesas like the one he found himself standing on and other rocky formations. It reminded him of home, and it took very little time for him to figure out why. On the horizon, twinkling in the sunrise, was a town, "That is..."

"Jasper, Nevada. Neat, huh," A voice Jack behind enthusiastically blurted out and he spun around in fright.

"Y-You've been right outside of my hometown this whole time! How do you keep this place hidden?"

"Here let me show you," the yellow bot, who he now remembered was called Bumblebee, scooped him up and jumped over the edge of the formation with the teen in its grasp. He landed with a thud and Jack nearly reintroduced the world to his supper. Bumblebee turned around and gestured towards where they had just been, only the lift was no longer extending out of the strange rock overhang, "We use a simple hologram to disguise it. The _Axalon_, that's our ship by the way, is already completely covered by the rock of the mesa, so we only really have to use it to hide our entrances to the base. Oh, and us if we go outside."

Jack scrambled down from Bumblebee's arms and used one of his own to cover his mouth while the other propped him against the Autobot's leg. Bumblebee kept talking, but the human ignored him. Finally the young Autobot looked finished his rambling with a question of his own, "Are you supposed to be that shade of green?"

"I'm fine," Jack wheezed; moving his hand from his mouth to his stomach, "Just wasn't expecting to be pulled off a cliff."

"Oh, sorry, "Bumblebee looked embarrassed and then suddenly startled, "Wait, I almost forgot, Prime told me to watch out for you! I guess he was afraid you'd run off and try to bargain with the D-cons," Bumblebee laughed, or rather, beeped after he said this and Jack chuckled nervously.

"Yeah, that would be unfortunate," Jack began playing with the cord that hung around his neck. "wouldn't it."

"Sure would, but you would never do that, right?" Jack slowly shook his head with the look of someone who is in deep thought plastered on his face, but it was agreement nevertheless; prompting Bumblebee to smile nervously, "So, uh, where do ya wanna go?"

Jack's facial expression changed to one of confusion, "Huh?"

"Where do you want to go? Today's Saturday, so we have all day off."

"We?"

"Yeah, since I was the first bot here and have Earth culture so ingrained in my processor, the others let me have a couple days off every week like people in this country do. Today's one of them," Bee explained.

"Okay," Jack said, though he was really thinking about how much he didn't want Autobot company. Perhaps, however, this Autobot's trusting nature could be useful. He hated to do what he assumed Decepticons would do, based on their name, but he really needed to rescue his mother; darn the consequences. _Well_, he decided as he opened his mouth, _here goes_, "can we go to yesterday's battle site?"

"What for?" Bee looked at him like he had grown an eye in the middle of his forehead.

"I need to search through the remains of my car, Soundwave smashed it and there's some stuff in there that I have to get."

"Sure thing," the yellow Autobot morphed into his altmode, Jack hopped in, and they drove off towards their destination.


	11. Chapter 11

"So, uh, what are we going to get, anyway?" Bumblebee spoke up after several minutes into their trip.

"Just some personal belongings, "Jack replied curtly, never taking his eyes off of the horizon to glance at the dashboard. Bumblebee stayed silent, but he was wondering why it was that the human was being so grumpy. Jack just grumbled when the Autobot nudged his foot with the gas pedal, "What do you want?"

"Um, uh," Bumblebee stuttered, surprised by the outburst, but he spat it out when the teen glared at his dashboard, "Why are you so grumpy? I thought humans your age were supposed to be all immature, and fun, and hyped up on monsters and Slash Monkey, but your just so glum and depressing."

"Why am I so grumpy, why am I so grumpy!? I'm an only child whose father died when I was three. I just found out that aliens exist and the man who I saw as a father figure turns out to be their liaison to the United States government." Jack had started the rant shouting at the top of his lungs, but he now quieted down to a whimper and placed his head in his hands, "And to top it all off, my mother has been kidnapped by said aliens and yet I'm expected to trust members of that species' government completely."

"It isn't our fault, you know," Bumblebee said quietly.

"I bet the Decepticon's would say the same thing," the teen grumbled nearly silently.

* * *

"Lord Megatron, I must say that I do not agree with this," Soundwave droned to the silver mech looking down at him with a ruby gaze, "she is not likely to know anything about how to gain access to the Sector Seven databases."

Megatron growled, and Starscream blurted out, "Besides Lord Megatron, why waste time hurting a human when we should be focusing our efforts on fortifying our base and working on finding that of the Autobots," Starscream chuckled and continued, "After all, the reason you want control of Sector Seven is to release the 'NBEs' the have captured in their facilities, but what kind of Cybertronians could they possibly capture other than Vehicons?"

Megatron, Soundwave, and Flatline all stared at him with varying expressions; prompting the air commander to burst out, "What did I say?"

Flatline pinched the bridge of his nose and replied, "Starscream, as a member of the Seekers, you should know the history of the Decepticons better than any of us save Lord Megatron and Soundwave. Nonetheless, as you do not seem to know of this particular matter, I shall explain. At the end of the War for Cybertron, Lord Megatron left High Commander Shock..."

"..wave in charge of Cybertron. I know. Your point is?"

"As I was saying," Flatline continued with a huff, "We lost contact with him about four and a half years ago, for unknown reasons. Then, when Soundwave hacked into S7 database a few months ago, we found this file."

Soundwave pinged Starscream a file, and the air commander opened it, "Project: Polyphemus? What the pit is that?" He began scanning through it and reading it aloud, "NBE-43. Notes: While all of the previous NBEs have been nearly identical purple and bearing the same emblem on their chest, this specimen is nearly completely different and bears no emblem. In addition, this specimen is not powered by the superconductive element EN-{Redacted} as the others are, but by a compound formed from both EN-{Redacted} and various carbon and oxygen isotopes. It also bears runes that roughly translate to 'scientist major commander lord blast lightning'," Starscream's faceplates twisted into a strange puzzled expression as he read the last sentence and he spluttered out, "Blast lightning?! Who is that? I am unaware of any Decepticon commander by that designation."

Megatron smirked, "Open the next sub-file, Starscream."

Stascream complied and opened the file, which turned out to be a precisely copied drawing of the runes, and his face twisted from an expression of confusion to one of shock, "How did the humans manage to capture_ him_?!"

Flatline replied, "There is only one person who can tell us that..."

"...Shockwave himself!" Megatron finished his medic's sentence and then roared out, "Starscream, prepare Bonecrusher to interrogate the human femme."

"Of course, my lord," Starscream bowed, turned, and strode into the hallway leading from the meeting room. He walked for several minutes before coming to a split in the hallway. The door on the right would twist deep inside the earth, ultimately leading to Bonecrusher's cell. However, Starscream had another stop he had to make before going to the Decepticon hunter's realm. So, he turned to the left, where a single large door covered in strands of white residue sat slightly open; giving him a glance into the darkness beyond.

He walked to the entryway and pried the broken mechanism open just enough for him to squeeze his way in. This room always gave him the creeps, whatever the situation. No matter, better a little fear on his part than losing their chance at capturing the real target to Megatron's impatience. He took a few steps into the inky blackness and called out in the loudest voice he could muster, "Hello?! Do you hear me. I have a mission for you."

Six yellow, glowing circles appeared on the ceiling very briefly, before they all fell into the sliver of light that entered through the door. They were connected to a giant spider, mechanical and yet somehow twistedly organic. The beast called out in a hissing voice that made Starscream's energon run cold, "Excellent! Muahahaha!"


	12. Chapter 12

**Sorry for the lack of chapters the last few days. I have had a lot to do in real life, so I didn't have much time to write.**

* * *

Jack and Bumblebee reached the battle site and the human teen immediately hopped from the interior of his Autobot companion; shielding his eyes from the glare of the early morning sun with one hand. The Autobot transformed next to him, the transformation resulting in a plume of dust that launched into the air around them.

Jack coughed and continued to the ruins of his car, which had stopped burning and now just stood sticking up from the ground like the charred corpse of some large metal beast. He forced the passenger side door open and peeked his head into the vehicle. The GPS seemed to have been smashed. Jack frowned and climbed inside for a closer look at the destroyed device.

After a minute of shuffling around, he located the chunk that held the SD card slot and pried the frayed wires holding it to the rest of the car from their ports; pulling the machine into the open air and sitting down to work on it. The first problem he encountered was that whatever caught the car on fire, probably the Decepticons trying to hide evidence, had fused the slot closed.

Jack pulled out his pocket knife and began working at the melted plastic; finally scraping it away after a few minutes. The next problem was actually getting the SD card-like device out of the GPS. This turned out to be much harder than all of the rest of the procedure had been, and he had to do it alone due to the fact that Bumblebee just watched curiously, when he wasn't glancing around in fear of Decepticons intervention.

Ultimately, Jack's patience paid for itself when the card slid out with a loud scraping sound. The teen examined it for a moment and when he decided it was probably undamaged enough to work, he asked, "Hey, Bee, could you transform into vehicle mode for a moment?"

"Uh, sure thing. Why, exactly?"

Jack struggled to think of an answer that wouldn't sound suspicious, "I've gotten everything I need here, time to go back."

That seemed to satisfy Bumblebee, and the yellow Autobot collapsed into his vehicle form. Jack pulled himself in and Bumblebee hit the road. Jack slipped the card into Bumblebee's GPS as carefully as possible, but the Autobot still noticed. Bee began to say something, but his voice was interrupted by a strange screech coming from his radio.

* * *

Starscream and the spider rushed towards the groundbridge lab at the fastest speed they thought they could without causing suspicion, though Starscream would admittedly have a hard time keeping up with the arachnid if they weren't worried about appearances. As they jogged, the two Decepticons discussed their plans, "I understand, Commander Starscream, that you do not wish to unleash Bonecrusher unless absolutely necessary, but I do not see how you intend for me to find the human. It is unlikely that the Autobots will let him out of their sight, and as we do not know the location of the _Axalon_..."

"I am well aware of that. However, humans are known for their loyalty to their families, even more loyal than Cybertronian families are, despite their inability to communicate via their bonds. I find it likely that this human will do whatever it takes to rescue his 'mother', even betraying the Autobots."

They had now reached the lab, so they stopped their conversation. Starscream opened the door, with the spider following behind. They glanced around in search of Flatline, he was nowhere to be found. Starscream began powering up the groundbridge, and the spider crawled towards the main ring of metal that made up the device. The seeker began searching through the coordinates that the groundbridge had used recently; trying desperately to find the evening before's battle site. That was when he noticed a discrepancy, a new set of coordinates was being set repeatedly to the machine by the device Soundwave had sent to the human, "Well isn't that interesting. The human has already betrayed his allies. This was sooner than expected."

He set the coordinates to sync with the device and waited for the portal to activate; ordering the spider through as soon as he did so. Seconds later, he deactivated the bridge, and not a moment to soon, because a voice behind him asked in a rather annoyed tone, "Starscream, what are you doing here?"

"Nothing, Flatline."

* * *

Bumblebee transformed in pain; involuntarily flinging Jack away. The teen covered his ears and just lay on the ground for a minute in an attempt to catch his breath. He hoped that Bumblebee's pain would be worth it, and his answer was given very soon after he finally stood to his feet and dusted himself off. Two things happened at once, Bumblebee stopped screeching, and that was followed up by the green glow of a groundbridge opening near him. What came out was not at all what he had expected. It was not a giant robotic man, but a beyond giant mechanical spider. Bumblebee's optics grew wide and he stammered, "Its, its..."

The spider's cry finished his sentence, "Tarantulas, terrorize!"


	13. Chapter 13

**Once again, sorry for the late chapter.**

* * *

The spider split down the middle; most of its abdomen extending and twisting out to form a pair of double-kneed legs, each of which ended in a pair of sharp claws. The rest of the abdomen, along with part of the thorax and fangs, shifted into the shape of two thin arms. The legs of the spider mounted themselves on the back of the monster's body, which was quite small compared to the limbs mounted on it. The eyes remained open, staring hungrily at Bumblebee before shifting to Jack and then back again. Lastly, with a cackle, the head of the creature appeared. It was perhaps even more monstrous than that of its beast-mode. It was mostly taken up by a spider-like maw on the bottom and seven eyes mounted on the top, with a thin optic band separating them like a divider in a maths fraction.

Despite its rather garish color scheme of magenta and orange, the general effect of the creatures appearance was genuinely quite disturbing, and Jack found himself gasping in fear. Bumblebee stood with a similar shocked gasp in his throat for a moment, but that did not last long. He wheeled towards the Decepticon and morphed his right hand into the conical, taser-like weapon that he had come to call the stinger. It crackled with energy as he lunged at Tarantulas, while the spider-bot merely laughed and held out a single three-fingered hand as if to say stop. The Autobot didn't stop, instead he sped up; closing the distance even quicker. Alas, just as his weapon was poised to make contact with the unusually calm Tarantulas, the Decepticon reacted; swinging his arm towards Bumblebee while at the same time exchanging the fist at the end for a massive crab-like claw.

Bumblebee flew back towards Jack, and the human only just managed to crawl out of the way of the falling robot,"Jack, run!" Bumblebee ordered as loudly as he could. The human did so; sprinting back towards the safety of the damaged car. He scrambled in and watched to see what would happen.

Tarantulas immediately jumped onto the downed Bumblebee and pointed a finger at the Autobot's faceplate, "I have waited nearly a decade for this, Autobot. They labelled you an NBE, and yet they trusted you completely. Yet I, the very first they found, am locked up and used as a science experiment. Ah well," he cackled as the arm he pointed at Bumblebee morphed into a rather rusty looking weapon with a dish shaped blade mounted on it, "all's well that ends badly. Mwahahahha!"

The spider's maniacal laughter was drowned out by the sound of Bumblebee's engine revving, followed shortly by the Autobot zooming backwards on his wheels; throwing Tarantulas off balance. The Autobot skidded to a stop and leapt to his feet, before aiming his stinger back at the Decepticon, "Seems that the boot's on the other wheel, Tarantulas!"

His opponent merely responded by laughing as he slammed his back mounted arms onto the ground; the resulting force launching him into the air. Once he was fully airborne, his legs reformed back into his abdomen and fired a single thick strand of metallic white webbing towards Bumblebee. The yellow Autobot dodged in by simply stepping to his right, and the strand stuck to the ground behind him. He smirked momentarily, but his glee instantly faded when Tarantulas reeled in the web and zipped towards the ground, and himself, at high speeds. He opened his mouth to scream and was instantly silenced when the half-spider-half-robot slammed into him. The blow sent him flying backwards yet again, and he found himself groaning in pain, not to mention unable to move.

He looked down to see why and was disappointed to see a large net made of web holding him down. Tarantulas picked himself up from the ground, none the worse for wear despite his fall, and transformed his abdomen back into legs, "Do Autobots ever get tired of being stupid?"

The spider-bot jumped to Bumblebee in a single leap; landing on his chest with crushing force. The Decepticon's back panel opened a slight bit and dozens of small mechanical spiders rushed out of it, down Tarantulas's back and legs, and onto Bumblebee, "No matter, it merely makes preparing the _hor__s d'oeuvre_ so much easier. Mwahaha!" The small spiders, all of which remained connected to their master via a transparent tube, began drilling into Bumblebee and siphoning his energon extremely slowly, "Yes, your precious lifeblood, sweet as honey and smooth as a _jus de viande_. Delectable! Mwahahahahah-"

The vampire-like Decepticon's laugh was cut off by the demanding , and very much irritated, voice of Flatline roaring over his commlink, "Tarantulas, come back here immediately! You were not given authorization for this mission."

Tarantulas laughed, "Of course I was. Direct from Commander Starscream. Now, I'm in the middle of a meal, so _au revoir!_"

"Do what he says!" Starscream interjected before he could close the channel, "Grab the human and get out of there!"

"Human?! Starscream, did you send him out to retrieve the child against Lord Megatron's orders?" Flatline had an accusing tone in his voice.

"Of course not!" Starscream sounded insulted, "Lord Megatron never said I couldn't send out Tarantulas. He just said I couldn't sent out Soundwave!"

"That doesn't mean that-"

Tarantulas shut off his commlink. He liked to enjoy his meals, and his two comrade's arguing was making that very difficult. He hissed and retracted his drones with a set of loud zipping sounds, growled, and morphed into beast mode. The spider would have to make this quick. He brought his fangs down to bite at the Autobot's face, but was cut off by the sound of the human protoform clearing his throat, "Its me you're after. Leave him be."

Tarantulas whirled around, flinging venom and technorganic saliva everywhere in the process, and a look of realization dawned on its face, "You, I've seen you before!" then he added with a low growl, "I've eaten you before..."

Jack looked confused and glanced back towards the car he had recently vacated, trying to decide whether or not to go back. He cleared his throat again and ordered, "Release my mother and I'll tell you what you need to know."

The spider merely laughed and stalked towards him, while a green vortex opened up behind him, "Oh, on the contrary. You will tell us, no matter what."

* * *

**So, what does everyone think of Tarantulas using French terms when he's hungry. Yes? No? Sometimes? Pickles?**


	14. Chapter 14

**Kinda interesting that you mentioned Smokescreen, HardyGal. Why you ask? Because, in this (rather short) chapter, the Autobot Rookie returns! *Party Blower sounds***

* * *

Tarantulas gripped Jack in his fangs and turned towards the groundbridge. He scrambled through it and immediately noticed that the rarely needed secondary bridge was activated. He returned to robot mode and handed the human to Flatline, who was waiting impatiently for his arrival. He turned to leave, but Flatline wouldn't let him, "Tarantulas, head to the command room, Lord Megatron wishes to speak with you as soon as he returns."

"Returns? He was here when I left, were did he go?"

"Indeed he was. Something came up. If we didn't have that secondary groundbridge, you'd be in even more trouble than you already are."

"What could possibly be so important as to warrant cutting off my meal. It was so _délicieux_..," Tarantulas began to drool, despite his efforts to the contrary.

"We have picked up the signal of an Autobot space vessel. The first to arrive since our battle with the Ark. That is why it was imperative that we have as few troops scattered out on different missions as possible." Flatline quickly explained the situation as he handed Jack to a Vehicon, which nodded and began the trek to the base's brig, "Just be glad we have a backup groundbridge, otherwise you would probably be left out in the desert."

"To finish my meal in peace..," Tarantulas grumbled.

* * *

Despite the time that had passed for those not in Transwarp, it had only been a few hours of travel for Smokescreen when the ship appeared out of the technologically created wormhole. He slowed the ship down and looked out of the view screen. He gasped. The world he was heading towards was not all grays and browns like Cybertron, it was mostly a shimmering blue with large swaths of green and pale yellow that swirled across it. He was pleasantly surprised, Earth was not at all like the horrid organic planets he had heard about from other Autobots, "So, this is Earth. Not to shabby. Auntie, set course for" Smokescreen motioned to a rather flat and dry part of the planet, "there!"

"Acknowledged. Course set for..," the ship hacked its way into the planets satellite network to find the location's name, "...Jasper, Nevada."

The ship's engines increased their power, and within moments the ship was closing in on its targeted location. That was when everything went wrong. The ship was hit broadside with a powerful energy blast. It instantly dipped towards the ground and Smokescreen braced for the impact. The ship made contact and the Autobot was knocked against the wheel with a large amount of force. Smokescreen had luckily shielded his face, but the impact still broke his arm, "It... could be worse... least it wasn't... my neck that snapped. Auntie, damage report."

"All systems fully intact. Damage seems to be in primary information conduits. Dropship nonfunctional for unknown reasons."

"Great. Are the scanners online."

"Affirmative."

"Okay, scan for a native altmode, I'm going to need one. Oh, and deactivate the emergency beacon to conserve energy, if there are any Bots here, they already know about me at this point."

"Of course," Auntie scanned for altmodes and found several that could work. The AI selected the one that most fit Smokescreen's existing altmode, a sleek white, orange, and blue sports car, and sent it to him. Meanwhile, Smokescreen had hidden the Covenant in a hidden compartment usually used for weapon storage and primed his bo-staff. He saved the altmode's stats and hid next to the dropship's rear hatch.

A muffled voice outside gave an order, but he could only understand the words Bonecrusher and hatch. The next moment, eight long claws stabbed through the hatch and the whole door and its frame were savagely ripped from the ship. Smokescreen found himself staring at a hideous Decepticon who was covered in scratches and dried splatters of energon. It was tall and skeletal in appearance. Each hand had four claws that were just as long as the entire forearm. The head was just a large mouth mounted under a flat metal plate where its eyes should be. It was grinning, but there was no joy in that creature's smile, only sadistic energonlust. It was the Decepticon's part time interrogator, full time berserker: Bonecrusher.

Both he and Smokescreen charged. Why he charged Smokescreen would never remember, he just did. The result was just as he expected, the single hit from his bo-staff that he managed to land did nothing and the monster knocked him to the side with a single blow. He struggled to right himself and ran away from both the beast and the ship. He was not watching where he was going, but he certainly wished he was, for the next moment he ran into the silver chest of Megatron. The Decepticon leader smirked and Smokescreen swung his bo-staff at his head. As expected, Megatron easily caught the Autobot rookie's arm. He twisted it and flung Smokescreen to the ground.

"So, Autobot, who are you? If you were older, I would say Prowl. If he were not long dead I would guess Bluestreak." Smokescreen did not reply, "Why do you not answer, are you not noteworthy? Tell me! Who are you?"

The Autobot coldly glared at Megatron, "I am he who defeated Shockwave. Do not trifle with me."

"Hahaha! Is that so? Well, we do not take Autobots words for truth here, no. Bonecrusher, take him back to the _Victory_. In one piece, preferably," Megatron ordered the hulking Decepticon, who immediately picked up the Autobot and slung him over his shoulder. Megatron glared after them as they entered the bridge, and could not help but feel a twinge of fear. If this Autobot indeed defeated Shockwave, then perhaps it was his captors who should be afraid.

* * *

Bumblebee awoke to find that he was still in the desert, and with a very low energon level. Worse yet, Jack was nowhere to be seen. He reluctantly sent out an emergency signal and groaned, "Agent Fowler is gonna kill me..."


	15. Chapter 15

"And when I came to, Jack was gone," Bumblebee finished relaying what happened in the desert to Mirage as Tankor welded the small yellow bot's wounds shut and pumped more energon into his systems. The medic had responded to Bumblebee's emergency signal alone and brought him back to the strangely empty base. The only bots there were Bumblebee, Tankor, and the about ready to explode Mirage.

"He betrayed us! He sent out a signal to the D-cons as soon as he had the chance and he's probably giving the Cons the codes right now! I knew we couldn't trust him!" Mirage immediately began a tirade against humans an Decepticons and anything else he could think of. Tankor merely groaned, but Bumblebee jumped to his feet and started walking towards Mirage as the spy continued, "If you guys hadn't trusted him this would have never happened. Optimus is too trusting and you, Bumblebee, you're naive-ness allowed the meat-bag's scheme to go off without a hitch!"

"Oh yeah? Well, if a certain someone hadn't gone out for a joyride, Soundwave might not have even found Jack in the first place!"

"Are you accusing me of this? How dare you, I am your elder and superior. Why, if you unsatisfied bots hadn't started this war, I'd be sitting in my suite in Cyberlot watching the Oilympics right now!" He poked an accusatory finger in Bumblebee's face and the yellow Autobot repayed it with a shaky punch that missed and only succeeded in causing him to lose his balance. Tankor pushed between them and gripped Bumblebee's shoulder to keep him upright.

"Stop! Bumblebee is already low enough on energon, and you will be too if you don't stop whining," he punctuated his reprimand to Mirage by throwing him to the ground, followed right away by tossing Bumblebee back to the medical berth, "We have enough problems without you two getting at each other's throats. Optimus and Arcee are out after a brief emergency signal that I noticed a few cycles ago, and we may need to treat them or any new arrivals when they return, so I need to be done with Bumblebee by then."

The Autobot Scout looked down at his pedes and sighed, "I really hope that Jack is okay. I can't stand to lose another friend..."

* * *

Smokescreen was unsure how long he had been in the darkness of the_ Victory_'s cell block when the door to his prison opened. The sliver of light reaching into the pitch blackness did not provide anything more than a vague outline of the one who entered it, but he guessed it had to be a Decepticon since it held a pair of organic lifeforms in its hands. They were limp and one, which his scanners told him to be a middle-aged female, was covered in energon burns that still glowed faintly blue. The other, which was younger and male, was in much better shape despite being covered in reddish dust. The figure slowly placed them on the floor of the cell, much more carefully than Smokescreen would have expected from a Decepticon.

It looked up into his eyes and he could sense it trying to infiltrate his mind and resisted, it kept trying and ultimately gained access. The first thing he noticed was that it was not trying to take any information from his databanks, it was in fact adding to them. When it had finished adding the files it retracted its conscienceness and nodded to him. Smokescreen was reasonably reluctant to open the files, seeing as they could easily contain a virus, but he could also tell that the Decepticon was much more kind than most, exemplified that it did not seem interested in trying to find out any secrets from him. He opened the first file. It was a merely a message reading: _These are important documents regarding Lord Megatron's plan. You are probably wondering why I have chosen to help you, and I'm afraid I myself am not quite sure. Perhaps it is Megatron's total and utter disregard for the humans, creatures I have become quite fond of, and his intent to wipe them out. Perhaps it is his complete and utter hatred of the Autobots and insistence that they all be destroyed, even at the cost of our own. Whatever it may be, I know that there are several other's who are also disillusioned that I will try to sway to my side. Farewell._

Smokescreen looked up at the Decepticon, who nodded and exited the cell; closing the door behind him, but not locking it. Smokescreen smiled and opened up the next file, it was a map of the Victory, which to the Autobot's surprise was not a ship, but a massive base. The map showed a route to a room labeled as a Ground Bridge Lab and another leading to a tube that reached to the ocean's surface, presumably for jet-formers. He closed that file and opened the third and last file, which was divided into two sections, Operation: Polyphemus and Operation: Odysseus. His smile faded when he read the section about 'Polyphemus.' The file described a plan that involved the two organics, called humans, and some sort of secret organization. The thing that made him freeze was the objective of the plan, summed up simply in two words after the detailed operation data: _Free Shockwave._

Smokescreen hoped that the second half of the file would offer some solace, it was after all called 'Odysseus'. His hopes were dashed when he realized the bot that the file's creator intended to use as a tool to defeat Shockwave was in fact Smokescreen. His eyes blinked, whoever made this file almost surely intended to betray Megatron, as if the first file didn't make that clear enough. He almost couldn't believe it. He had a Decepticon traitor as an ally, a Decepticon who was doubtlessly one of the higher ups, maybe even one of the many officers. And at the very bottom of the second half of the file, he learned the only fact about his allies name. In simple yet elegant servo-writing was a single letter: _S_

* * *

**Ooh. I wonder, who could it be? I guess we shall have to wait and see.**


	16. Chapter 16

Smokescreen decided that the best time to escape would be at night, seeing as even Decepticons needed time to recharge. So as it was, he was forced to sit twiddling his thumbs, or reading the files and studying the map, until his internal clock told him it was go time. Sometime during the wait, one of the humans woke up and managed to climb up onto his shoulder unnoticed. Unnoticed that is, until it spoke, "Smokescreen, right?"

Smokescreen jumped slightly and turned to find that the speaker was the young male, "Yes. How did you know my name?"

"Megatron mentioned you, said he was sure you would talk, tell him what happened to Shockwave. I guess he thinks you would know where to find him. They were frustrated because I refused to give them the information they wanted," the human smirked bitterly as he looked over at the female, "before they let Mom go."

Smokescreen was surprised at the organics bravery in defying Megatron, "What were they looking for, Mister...?"

"Jack, and without the mister," Jack replied quickly. He pulled a cord wrapped around a card from his back pocket and frowned, "I think they were after this. My dad gave this to me when I was three and told me never to let anyone have it, no matter what. The cons didn't find it when they searched me, apparently they don't know much about humans."

Smokescreen held out his hand and Jack hopped onto it; allowing the Autobot to hold the human in front of his face. Smokescreen was no Alpha Trion, but he could easily guess what this key was for, "This card, it's a key of some sort isn't it."

"Yeah. Based on what Agent Fowler said, my dad worked for an organization called Sector Seven, so I'm sure this must be some sort of access key."

Smokescreen put two and two together; his face contorting into a grimace as he did, "A key to access Sector Seven's database without having to break past firewalls; allowing the cons to get into the most secret information and use it to their advantage. And what kind of information could they need? The coordinates for where Shockwave is imprisoned!" He gently scooped up Jack's mother and kicked open the cell door, "To the pit with waiting for night, we need to go now!"

Jack was struggling to keep from puking as Smokescreen carried them through the cellblock, "Why? What's so important about one Decepticon? I mean, I saw Tankor fight off Megatron one on one, and Megatron's the leader, right?"

"Leader doesn't equal strongest member. For every bit of strength and cunning Buckethead has, Shockwave has it twofold," Smokescreen explained as he searched for the belongings storage. He found it and placed Jack and June on top of a locker. He proceeded to pry it open: empty. He moved onto the next one: empty except for a large backpack-like storage pack. He slung it onto his back. The next locker was the one he wanted, inside was his bo-staff and weapon chip. He grabbed them and opened up his chest just long enough to put the weapon chip back in its place. After that, he put the two humans into the backpack where they would be safe and activated his bo-staff.

Then it all went to slag when a Vehicon walked into the room. It blinked once and ran towards him with an energon rod. Smokescreen chuckled at the drone's pathetic weapon of choice and rushed towards it at a much slower speed, for his passengers' sakes. The Vehicon tried to jab him with the prod and he stepped to the left; swinging his right arm in a U-shaped pattern at the same time. The blow caught the Decepticon across its lower chest and it flipped forwards. With a quick flip of the wrist, the Autobot sent the Vehicon flying into the lockers.

Smokescreen stopped just long enough to make sure it was in stasis before rushing out the door into the main part of the base. It was a mistake, all the Vehicons in that section of the ship seemed to be rushing towards him, "Oh, scrap..."

* * *

Optimus frowned at the wrecked ship that was before him, not so much angry as in thought. Arcee circled around the ship slowly; her scanner remaining quiet despite the Prime's senses detecting a life signal inside. The blue femme joined in with a frown of her own as she placed the scanner into her leader's hand, "No signal, Optimus. The scanner is picking up the energon droplets from the whatever fight happened here, and obviously the ships fuel reserves, but that's about it," she placed her servo on her hip and glanced back at the wreckage, and sighed, "Are you sure that you are sensing something Optimus? I know you have a link to the Allspark because of the Matrix, but..."

"Arcee, I have been a Prime for nearly a century now and I have only ever felt this specific form of energy in two situations: surrounding living sparks, and around the relics of my forefathers. There must be something around here, but what?" the Prime twisted a dial on the scanner and changed its wavelength; resulting in it reevaluating the scan in a different wavelength. The Prime mumbled in the language of the Primes, before looking up at the ship with a strange distant look in his optic.

"Uh, Prime? Earth to Optimus," Arcee waved a servo in front of his faceplate, but it seemed to do little good.

Prime mumbled in Primean again; quickly translating his own words in a whisper soon after, "The Covenant of Primus," He sprung into action; running towards the ship while Arcee stood with her bottom jaw flapping like a dying fish as she tried to make sense of the situation. Optimus entered the dropship through the ruined hatch and immediately zeroed in on the usually hidden compartment where Smokescreen had hidden the relic. He urgently peeled the panel away and began to reach for the book, but he drew his servo away when a strange vague memory flashed through his mind. He hastily motioned for Arcee to retrieve the relic, which she did with a nod and a worried glance.

Arcee had noticed how strangely Optimus was acting towards the relic and made the executive decision to call Tankor, "We've explored the crash site. Ready to be bridged out."

The green vortex opened and the two Autobots staggered through, one weighed down by the relic, the other by his own memories.

* * *

**So, yeah, Optimus is afraid to read or even touch the Covenant of Primus. Why? Because I used the big revelation about Optimus from the IRL Covenant of Primus book that released about a week ago as a chance to give Optimus a much-needed personality quirk.**


	17. Chapter 17

Tankor frowned at Optimus when the Prime failed to follow a light with his optics. Tankor's frown deepened when he considered how often he had been making that facial expression over the last few days. Optimus's eyes remained unfocused, or perhaps they were focused, just not on anything that was actually there. The medic slowly turned to face Arcee. The femme was watching Bumblebee and Mirage as they took turns trying to pull open the book, their feud forgotten in light of the strange relic, "Arcee, when did Optimus start acting like this?"

"After he found that book. He waved me over to get it, and then just started staring of into space," Arcee sighed and glanced at her leader, "What do ya think caused it?"

"Well, if I had to guess, I would say that the book triggered memories. Memories of a disturbing nature, most likely."

"Like, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder?"

"Exactly. Whatever is in that book, Optimus doesn't want to remember it..."

* * *

Smokescreen froze by the cellblock entrance, the drones didn't. They rushed towards Smokescreen with their energon pods held above their heads. One Vehicon with a prod, two Vehicons with prods, or even up to five Vehicons with prods would be laughed off by almost any Autobot, but twenty or so of the drones, even with just prods, would be an excellent excuse to discharge any excess transmission fluid. Smokescreen didn't, he was too strong for that. Instead he just stood stock still, his face expressionless, while Jack shouted out inquiries from the backpack.

The first drone to reach Smokescreen expected an easy target, but instead it became one when Smokescreen lashed out with a bo-staff to its waist. The Vehicon doubled over into the path of Smokescreen's rising knee; the resulting blow knocking the drone both into stasis and backwards into the bath of its brethren. One Vehicon tripped over its fallen comrade; placing it easily into the path of a blow to the head by Smokescreen. The third and fourth Vehicons were smarter and jumped over the first body and stood on the second, which was promptly shoved out from underneath them by their opponent. A second later and the were faceplate down on the floor, both in stasis.

"Too easy," Smokescreen snapped as he leapt over the four on the ground and towards the next wave. The drones surrounded the Autobot and started trying to strike him, but mostly just succeeded in hitting each other; sending their own members into unconsciousness. Smokescreen smirked and shoved the rear end of his bo-staff into the back of one Vehicon's head, following that up by kicking another in the kneecap. A Vehicon behind him jabbed its prod forward, but Smokescreen had already anticipated the attack and rolled to one side. The stab only resulted in the Vehicon with the wounded knee getting a face full of electricity. It tumbled over, and the one who took it down soon followed due to a staff upside the head.

The remaining dozen surrounded Smokescreen with their prods pointed at him. He only chuckled as they rushed towards him. When they were close, he jumped and the Vehicons slid to a halt close together. Smokescreen landed on two of their heads with enough force to knock them out. The drones crumpled to the floor, and he used his momentum to crack another pair's heads together. Then it was just a melee, quick and furious; the eight Vehicons swinging their prods at Smokescreen as the Autobot did his best to dodge them. He ducked under one drone's blow, only to have to jump to avoid another's. He did a roundhouse kick as he landed; catching the two off guard and knocking them to the ground. Two more quick blows, two more unconscious Vehicons.

He felt a drone grab onto his backpack, and immediately flipped it over his shoulder into the face of another of its oncoming brethren. Another pair of blows, four remaining Vehicons. The drones tried another strategy; rushing at him one by one so as to never give him time to recover between volleys. The first one met Smokescreen's and crumpled to the ground. The next was sidestepped and clotheslined itself on the Autobot's bo-staff. The was met with a knee to the face. The final one just stood there, mocking him. Smokescreen jump-kicked it. It grabbed his pede and threw him to the ground.

He struggled to his feet and stared the final Vehicon down. They circled around the hall, careful to avoid the bodies. Smokescreen and the drone charged towards each other at the same time, but this Vehicon was smarter than the others. Instead of running directly towards its opponent, it sidestepped at the last-minute, turned around, and pulled the backpack from Smokescreen's shoulders. It ripped it open and pulled out a very nausious looking Jack Darby, "Put down the staff, Autobot."

"Over my dead body..." the last word trailed off when Smokescreen saw what the Vehicon held.

"Servos in the air."

Smokescreen did as he was told, sort of. When his hand was pointed directly at the drone's face, it morphed into its rarely used blaster form, "Put down the human!" the Vehicon didn't move. Smokescreen gritted his denta and powered up the blaster, "Put. down. the. human!"

A blaster fired. Smokescreen suddenly couldn't feel his arm. A screechy voice yelled something, maybe at him. Smokescreen couldn't tell. He was losing energon, and he was tired. So tired. Everything went black.


End file.
